Housing assistance is a powerful and cost-effective way to improve HIV
health outcomes and prevent new infections. For people living with HIV,
research shows that lack of stable housing is strongly linked to inadequate HIV health care,
high viral load, poor health status, avoidable hospitalizations and emergency room visits,
and early death. Unmet subsistence needs such as homelessness & hunger
have been found to have an even greater effect than anti-retroviral therapy (ART)
adherence on the over-all physical and mental health of men and women with HIV.
People with HIV who are coping with homelessness are two to six times more likely
than those who have stable housing to have recently engaged in drug related
or sexual behaviors that can transmit HIV Ð after controlling for substance use,
mental health issues, access to services, and other factors that contribute to risk.
People with HIV who are experiencing homelessness are also significantly
more likely than those who are not homeless to have a detectible HIV viral load,
which increases the risk of transmitting the virus to others. Recent studies
have found that people with HIV who were experiencing homelessness and were
randomly selected to receive an immediate housing placement were twice as likely as control group
members who remained homeless to have an undetectable viral load after 12 months,
and that placement in supportive housing reduced AIDS mortality among homeless
persons by 80% over five years. Improved housing status also prevents new HIV
infections by reducing HIV risk behaviors by as much as half and by facilitating
effective anti retroviral treatment that lowers viral load to an undetectable level,
virtually eliminating ongoing HIV transmission. By improving the health of people with HIV,
housing assistance dramatically reduces the use of expensive emergency and in-patient services,
generating ÒsavingsÓ in public health care spending that offset the cost of the housing.
Studies have indicated that annual taxpayer costs may be reduced by as much as
$7,000 per person housed. In addition, each new HIV infection prevented through more
stable housing saves $400,000 in lifetime medical costs and countless life years Ð
making housing a cost-effective HIV health care intervention.